I'm listening
by Lady Kick Your Butt
Summary: Skye is off for an internship in research and development at Boston University. Sometimes things don't often go as a planned, but Skye isn't one to give up. Nothing can break the fierce, confident Penderwick. Not workplace prejudice, not condescending sympathy, and definitely not a young street musician. Thank God, Skye doesn't exactly have an ear for music.


"Hey, Skye?" Jane plopped on the couch next to her. She signed her words too- it was a force of habit- though Skye could read her lips perfectly.

"I'm listening." Skye signed back with a smirk. Jane rolled her eyes at that, and brushed the joke aside.

"Iantha wants to know if you're all packed." Skye read her sister's hand gestures with ease, and merely nodded indifferently. She had packed the last of her things the night before, everything was rolled up or boxed neatly and perfectly and tucked safely in her car.

Jane had to touch her shoulder to regain her attention from the TV again. "You aren't nervous at all?"

Skye shrugged. In a way, yes, she was a little nervous, after all this wasn't some little science fair project that she was doing as a college student. It was proper Astrophysics studying in research and development at Boston University. Yeah, it was just an internship, but who knew what it would lead to! Skye was mostly excited, no, thrilled at her opportunity.

Jane noted the grin on her sister's face. Jane knew her sister's face very well, she usually had to go there to understand Skye. She was very practiced in reading Skye's facial expressions, just because her words were scarce. Skye could talk, she just chose not to do so often, because often people adopted an expression of pity or mockery. She knew she didn't sound as coherent as most people, but like that was her fault.

Jane and the rest of Skye's family often felt terrified for her, mostly because Skye felt none herself. For her, not being able to hear was a natural given, she had been like that since she was born. She was used to it, and that helped out a lot. Still, the fact that she was going off to be on her own, in Boston, it was nerve-wracking for the rest of her family. Everyone knew that Skye could protect herself, -all the boys with black eyes they had received thanks to her wrath were a testament to that fact- but still Skye had her place in the family and there would be a definite hole.

"What's the matter?"

Jane started at her older sister's voice, surprised to find that Skye had been trying to catch her attention. That happened more than you'd think, enough so that people had just as much a hard time trying to grab her focus as they did Skye's.

"Nothing." Jane said, blinking back her thoughts, "I was just thinking about a story I'm working on."

Skye bought it with an acknowledging grunt and sat back again, watching the soccer game with interest. Jane tried to watch the game too, but her eyes kept straying back to Skye.

Skye noticed. She was deaf not blind, but she didn't remark upon it. She knew Jane hadn't been thinking about a story, her face had been too downcast for that, and Skye was excellent at reading people's expressions. She had to be, so she could gauge whether she had spoken a word incorrectly, and it helped her figure out what they were trying to say if they were the stumbling type who threw in 'um's and word repeats in their sentences. Skye could tell a person's true thoughts from their face, and guess that their words were lies. What's the point of reading someone's words if they aren't true? It was a waste of time; so, it was faster to catch their eyes shifting. More often, people had a tick where they covered their mouths subconsciously when they lied, that amused Skye. Of course she couldn't read their mouths like that, there was only one possible thing to read from that pose, and it wasn't the truth.

"I'll miss you." Jane signed, without looking at her.

Skye bit back the urge to pretend she hadn't seen her sister's hands or at least to make a joke, like 'of course you will, who wouldn't miss me?'. She felt uncomfortable in emotional situations.

"I'll miss you too." Skye said the words, knowing that would have a better impact on her sister than if she had just casually signed them for her. Jane's ears perked up at the sound of her voice. Jane always perked up her ears when Skye talked aloud, that had a habit of distracting Skye. She had never perked up her ears in her life. She always wondered idly what that was like.

Jane tackled Skye with a large hug, pushing her back into the present. Skye, normally, would have protested. She would grumble that she was trying to watch the game, and push Jane away gruffly. What was the point though? Skye was evolving from her old self where she had once believed she had to show how strong she was, and that hugging was a sign of weakness. She was going to miss her little sister, and so she hugged her close while she could. Though that didn't stop her from cracking a joke when they broke apart. She hadn't changed that much.

"I definitely won't miss the sound of your voice though." she signed.

Jane groaned, Skye watched her whole body go limp as she dramatically slumped over the armrest.

"You're terrible." Jane signed with a sour expression.

Yeah, Skye was going to miss this.

* * *

 **Hey, look it's me finally emerging, and than adding insult to injury by making this a short chapter. Sorry. Consider this a prelude to the actual multichapter story coming. That's right, I'm writing a full-length story again and not a one-shot. Rest assured you will still get some oneshots, but I needed a bit more of a challenge. After some deliberation on a whole bunch of plots going through my head, I decided on this one, because it seemed the hardest. Hope you guys enjoy.**


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